Yesterday, January 24, marked a very important anniversary in our technologically-driven society. It was 20 years ago, in 1984, that Apple introduced the Macintosh personal computer. I don't quite remember the occasion as being memorable (other than the "1984" ad - see my post on that subject). I remember using the Apple IIe in computer class in high school, but I never really used a Mac until the early 1990s. I only bought my first one (used) a couple of years ago, after the release of OS X. Apple computer may have failed to live up to the hype and promise it had in 1984, but that should not diminish their accomplishment with the introduction of the Macintosh. It was Macintosh that had the first Graphical User Interface (GUI), the desktop/filing cabinet/click-and-drag metaphor. While Apple did not invent the GUI (Xerox did, but it never left the Xerox PARC labs), they were the first to introduce it to the mass market, and made it the default computing metaphor that we all take for granted these days on almost all operating systems. This in itself was a revolution and was the driving force that made computers more than sophisticated adding machines and gave them appeal to the ordinary person. For this, Apple, I salute you! Happy birthday, Macintosh, and you Apple live on for at least another 20 years.